The Panama Tourism Authority, Copa Airlines, and Pullmantur Cruises will promote Panama as a tourist destination

Panama, July 27, 2017

On Thursday, July 27, 2017, the Panama Tourism Authority, Copa Airlines, and Pullmantur Cruises signed a joint cooperation agreement to promote Panama as a tourist destination for cruise ships.

The agreement is intended to attract more Latin American tourists to Panama through ongoing promotional efforts. The additional tourists will benefit el Hub de las Américas and will also be a boon to Pullmantur Cruises, which operates out of the port of Colon, one of its three home ports in the region, on a yearly basis.

As part of this partnership, Copa Airlines will offer special fares exclusively for Pullmantur cruise passengers who select Colon as their port of departure. The special fares will be available for flights to Panamá from 14 airports in 8 countries around Latin America: Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador; Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City, Mexico; Asuncion, Paraguay; Lima, Peru; and Montevideo, Uruguay.

In each of these cities, key wholesalers have been selected to put together, promote, and sell very attractive vacation packages for travelers to Panama. Each package will include a plane ticket, a week-long cruise, transportation, and a hotel stay in Panama.

In addition, the Panamá Tourism Authority and Pullmantur Cruises will work together on a variety of marketing efforts to promote Panama in the Southern Cone. Panama’s deputy Minister of Tourism, Jennifer Champsaur, said that this partnership will provide greater exposure of the country’s brand across Latin America. That exposure will take a variety of forms, including 10- and 20-second ads at movie theaters in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.

Ads for this offer will also appear on billboards and signs in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Costa Rica, as well as in newspapers and magazines in these countries.

As Pullmantur Cruises looks to the upcoming 2017-2018 cruise season, the port of Colon will again be key to its operations, serving as the port of departure for the Monarch cruise ship. The Monarch will set sail on 52 cruises on Pullmantur’s “Antilles and South Caribbean” route, as well as its “Legendary Caribbean” route. The number of passengers is expected to double.

“I firmly believe that these strategic partnerships with the Panama Tourism Authority and Copa Airlines—both of which are so closely associated with Panama—will represent a real breakthrough for our business. They are certain to help make our product even more attractive,” said Richard J. Vogel, President and CEO of Pullmantur Cruises.

Vogel added, “We estimate that the financial impact from spending by our guests and crew members will be around 19 million dollars in Panama. And the impact of the company’s own activity would have to be added to that figure.”

Copa Airlines, for its part, is proud to be able to contribute to Panama’s strategic development, according to Karla Guillén, Wholesaler Manager at the airline.

She added, “This partnership will enable us to strengthen both tourism and trade. And from an international perspective, we will be continuing to highlight all of the strengths and very attractive features that Panama has to offer the world—now including having a hub port. Also, the Hub of the Americas will be even more firmly established as the primary point of connection linking North, Central, and South America.”